Lead Technical Architect - MoD - G7

We lead on cutting-edge data science, automation, and cyber security at scale. Our mission goes beyond the battlefield by leading humanitarian efforts and driving digital innovation that impacts lives across the globe.

Defence Digital forms part of Strategic Command which manages the MOD’s joint capabilities for the Army, RAF, and Royal Navy.

Working at Defence Digital 

Passionate about using your skills to make a critical difference? Your next career move could be here!

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.

Job description

We're seeking a Lead Technical Architect to drive our cloud and hosting strategy across diverse Defence teams. As our expert in this critical domain, you'll lead the creation of secure, resilient, and cutting-edge cloud architectures that power vital Defence operations.

You will leverage your deep understanding of cloud platforms, data centres, networking, and emerging technologies to shape our technical standards and ensure alignment across Defence and wider government, including NATO initiatives.

As a Lead Technical Architect you'll also manage, coach and mentor Technical Architects within the Cloud and Hosting team.

If you're passionate about building innovative solutions at scale and influencing technical direction, this is your chance to make a significant impact.

Responsibilities

Iteratively create optimal technical reference architecture and patterns, aligning key factors such as user need, system requirements, security, and organisational objectives, to support Defence’s Digital Backbone and Common Technology Architecture (CTA).

Contribute to the overall Technical Architecture (TA) vision, strategy and road-map for cloud and hosting, including ‘as-is’ and ‘to-be’ and transitional states, by developing architectural principles, policies, patterns, and standards.

Carry out horizon scanning across industry, identifying emerging trends and their potential impact and opportunity, updating technical strategies and road-maps, as appropriate. Present these findings to senior management and wider stakeholders to recommend improvements or enhancements to Defence’s cloud and hosting estate to further support strategic goals. 

Collaborate with and advise partners across Defence, Government, NATO Allies, and Industry to ensure business, technology, and data decisions align with current Defence strategy whilst contributing to the development of architectural practice across various domains.

Develop, lead, and participate in architecture communities, including the Architecture Reference Authority (ARA) for Cloud and Hosting and various NATO working groups. National and International travel will occasionally be required to support these engagements.

For more information on the Technical Architects profession please see the Government Digital and Data Framework; 

Lead Technical Architect

Person specification

To be successful in this role you will bring your proven success in crafting secure, scalable cloud solutions and thrive independently in complex settings. You will be a natural at communicating technical value and leading teams through impactful cloud transformations – from implementation to cost efficiency. You will have deep knowledge of cloud infrastructure, governance, and industry standards along with experience of cloud and hosting platforms such as AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI, VMWare or Nutanix.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

Seeing the Big Picture
Making Effective Decisions

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

Architect for the whole context
Architecture communication.
Strategy design
Technical design throughout the life cycle